Dog breed · Ukraine
The South Russian Ovcharka or South Russian Shepherd Dog is breed of flock guardian dog. It developed in the areas of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union that are now Ukraine and southern Russia, and is thought to derive from cross-breeding between local dogs of the Russian steppes and long-haired shepherd dogs brought to the area from Spain in the late eighteenth century together with Merino sheep. These may have been similar in appearance to the present-day Gos d'Atura Catala.
Characteristics: It is a large dog: dogs stand no less than 66 cm at the withers and weigh at least [dose — ask your vet]; bitches are about 4 cm smaller and weigh some [dose — ask your vet] less. Some dogs are very large, with weights of up to [dose — ask your vet]. The head is long and of wedge shape; the ears are pendent and triangular. The coat is long, coarse and thick. It may be solid white, grey or pale ivory; or white with tinges of yellow, or white with patches of grey, pale ivory or wheat colour.
Characteristics: It is a large dog: dogs stand no less than 66 cm at the withers and weigh at least [dose — ask your vet]; bitches are about 4 cm smaller and weigh some [dose — ask your vet] less. Some dogs are very large, with weights of up to [dose — ask your vet]. The head is long and of wedge shape; the ears are pendent and triangular. The coat is long, coarse and thick. It may be solid white, grey or pale ivory; or white with tinges of yellow, or white with patches of grey, pale ivory or wheat colour.
History: The South Russian Ovcharka is thought to derive from cross-breeding between local dogs – of both flock guardian and sighthound type – of the Russian steppes and long-haired shepherd dogs brought to the area from Spain in the late eighteenth century together with Merino sheep. These Spanish dogs may have been similar in appearance to the present-day Gos d'Atura Catala. A cross-bred dog of this South Russian type won a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1867 in Paris.
Much of the selective breeding and development of the breed took place in the early twentieth century, on the estates of Friedrich von Falz-Fein at Askania-Nova, now in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. The breed standard was approved early in the 1930s.
The Fédération Cynologique Internationale definitively accepted it on 30 September 1983 as the Yuzhnorusskaya Ovcharka or South Russian Shepherd Dog.
